


Growing Up Is Not An Absence Of Dreaming

by blackwingedbird



Category: Watchmen - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, F/F, F/M, Gen, LARPing, M/M, Multi, Other, Watchmen Kink Meme
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-06-23 03:31:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15597297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blackwingedbird/pseuds/blackwingedbird
Summary: The Crimebusters are childhood friends, playing an ever-evolving game of superheroes as they grow from elementary school kids to college students and beyond.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S BACK, BITCHES.
> 
> This fic was begun nearly ten years ago on the venerable Watchmen Kinkmeme on Livejournal, and I'm determined to finally get it finished. This version will likely vary wildly from the KM version, as I'll be trying to flesh things out and make connections I missed the first time around.
> 
> The original (and the prompt) can be found at https://spam-monster.livejournal.com/2938.html?thread=6722938#t6722938

"Bored," Laurie mutters, leg kicking idly, heel connecting with the leg of the chair she's sitting on with a slight  _thunk_. Her mouth twists into a scowl as this gets no response. "Bored," she says again.  _Thunk_. "Bored."  _Thunk_. "Boooored." A slightly louder  _thunk_ , competing with the sound of the rain pounding against the windows. "Bo-"  
  
"Laurie!" her mother finally snaps, looking up from the magazine she's perusing.  _There_. Laurie almost smiles. Her mom might be annoyed, but at least she's paying attention, which is a step in the right direction. Sally might be a little self-absorbed, but she's a pretty good mom, and she can be particularly good at coming up with things to do on boring, rainy stuck-inside days like today. Usually she even gets just as caught up in whatever activity they decide on as her daughter does, once Laurie exasperates her into playing.   
  
At the moment, though, she's staring at her, eyebrows high on her forehead, mouth set in a hard line, hand still paused halfway through turning a page, ready to go back to her magazine as soon as Laurie has fully absorbed the message that look sends. Laurie just shrugs and flips her hair back in a gesture years too old for her. "I'm bored," she explains innocently.   
  
Sally sets the magazine down with a sigh. "Yes. I'd gathered."   
  
Laurie looks back at her a little expectantly, pouting a bit. Were her father in the room, he would say she was being manipulative (something he accuses her of quite a bit, but that's all right, because she once used the word in front of Jon, and then had to explain what it meant, and it's not often that she gets to be smarter than Jon. She'd tried it on Adrian too, without as much luck, but Adrian knows just about everything, so it wasn't that disappointing.), and maybe she is, a little bit, but she doesn't  _mean_  to be. She just wants to play with her mom.   
  
Sally rolls her eyes, but her expression softens some. "You're nine years old, Laurie," she says. "Can't you come up with some way of entertaining yourself?"  
  
"Nope," Laurie says, shaking her head emphatically.   
  
"Why don't you read a book?" Sally suggests with an encouraging smile. Laurie chews on her lip as she thinks about this, then lets it slip from between her teeth with a soft, wet  _pop_  as she looks down at the floor.   
  
"I'll take that as a 'no.'" Her mom's tone is dry, but Laurie can tell she's trying not to smile. "You could play dress-up."  
  
_Hmm_. That has possibilities. "Dress-up's no fun alone," she says, as if it's just a thought that's occurred to her and she's not trying to get any particular response.   
  
Sally is smiling now, as she flips the magazine closed and stands up. "All right, all right, I'm coming."  
  
Laurie has a big trunk full of dress-up clothes, and Sally perches on the edge of the bed while she digs through them, debating if she'd rather be a princess, or a pirate, or... "Mom? What do you wanna be?"   
  
There's no answer, and when she turns around, lips already forming another questioning, "Mom?" her mother is staring off into space, her expression soft and faraway. "Hey... Mom," she says, brow furrowing.   
  
"Did I ever tell you about the game me and your uncle Hollis used to play?" Sally says, looking down at Laurie, though that faraway look doesn't really change.   
  
"Nope," Laurie says, eagerly taking a seat on the bed beside her mother. She loves when Sally tells her about when she was a kid, with Uncles Hollis and Nelly and Rolf... Her mom was the only girl hanging out with a bunch of boys, just like her, which she likes. She doesn't talk about it much, though, and for some reason her dad never likes it when she does.

"Well..." she says, smiling slightly like she's remembering some wonderful moment, "when we were about your age, we used to play superheroes."  
  
Laurie ponders this. "You mean like Batman?" Sally gives a short, surprised chuckle and a slightly questioning look. Laurie shrugs. "Dan really likes Batman." You can't hang out with a bunch of  _boys_  without learning a thing or two about superheroes, and Laurie has to admit she sort of likes the comics herself, even if she doesn't understand the devotion that drives Daniel to the newsstand every week to stock up on the slim books.   
  
"Of course he does," Sally smiles. "Well...yes, sort of like Batman. Wait a moment, I'll be right back." She hurries out of the room, and Laurie sits on the bed, wondering what this is about. When she returns, she's holding a small bundle of yellow fabric.   
  
"Look," she says, holding it up. The gauzy material cascades downward, shaping itself into a sort of dress. "This was my superhero costume. My mother made it for me." Laurie cocks her head and looks at the outfit. It doesn't look like much of a costume. There's not much to it. No armor like Batman, and it wouldn't even cover all over like Spider-Man's suit. "Would you like to try it on?"  
  
Laurie shrugs and takes the costume, which her mother holds out almost reverently. She ducks into the closet to change, at the age where she's starting to care whether her mother watches her do so. It's slightly loose, but not too bad. She comes out and looks in the mirror.   
  
"Well?" says Sally. "What do you think?" Laurie stares at her reflection a little skeptically. She's not too sure about it. It's too girly for a hero. It's one thing to be a princess and wear a big poofy gown, but superheroes shouldn't go around in little yellow dresses. It doesn't seem right.   
  
She doesn't want to upset her mother, though, so she says, "It's nice," tries to make it sound sincere.   
  
"Would you like to play?"  
  
Laurie shrugs. "What do we do?"  
  
"Well...say..." Sally tries to think of some of the games they played when they were younger. She and Hollis had kept up the vigilante stuff well into their teens, and by then it got quite a bit more violent, but when they were Laurie's age... "Say an evil villain has tied me to the train tracks, and you have to save me before the train comes," she says, stretching out on the bed.   
  
"I'll save you!" Laurie cries, her face splitting into a grin as she runs over to the bed. They play like that for awhile, and it's sort of fun, but she can't quite get into it. She just feels so  _silly_  in the costume, 'rescuing' her mother who, she's pretty sure, has never needed rescuing from anything. Superheroes might have been fine for her mom and Uncle Hollis, she decides, but she'd rather be a princess. Or a pirate.   
  
Finally she says she thinks she'll read a book after all, and Sally smiles at her. "All right. But you keep the costume, okay? Maybe you and Dan can play some time." Laurie nods, even though she's pretty sure that's not going to happen. She folds the costume carefully, because it's clear that it's important to her mother, and places it in the back of the closet.   
  
Later that night, she overhears her dad complaining. "--give her that thing for? I thought that silly game died out when you finally grew out of it." Her mother's response is muffled, and she can't make it out.   
  
That night in bed, before she falls asleep, Laurie thinks about the costume in her closet, and the name her mother told her she could use if she wanted -- Silk Spectre. It's a silly name and a silly outfit, but the thought of rescuing people is sort of fun, she thinks before drifting off.

It's stopped raining by the next day, but the ground is still muddy and Laurie slips a few times on her way out to the woods to meet Daniel. It's not really woods, just a little area with some trees and dirt, but they call it that because it's the closest thing they've got, and if she's learned anything from books and television it's that all kids should have woods to play in. By the time she gets to the treehouse, the knees of her jeans are damp and dirty, but she doesn't care. It's not really a treehouse, either, more like a lopsided shack half-propped up  _against_  a tree rather than  _in_  one, but Dan says that still counts, and he built it himself (with some help from Laurie and Jon, while Adrian looked on, most of his 'help' consisting of getting in the way) so if he says so, she's willing to go along with it.   
  
Dan's already inside, a stack of comic books sitting beside him and one in his hand. He barely looks up from the book when Laurie enters, mumbling a greeting. She sighs and flops down onto one of the crates that serve as chairs, picking up the book on top of the stack. Stuck inside all day yesterday and all Dan wants to do is read comics. She flips through the  _Batman_  book halfheartedly, thinking maybe if she lets him read for awhile she can get him to actually go play soon. For awhile there's nothing but the sound of turning pages. Soon enough, Laurie is engrossed in the story despite herself, and it takes her a moment to look up when Dan asks, "Wanna trade?"  
  
"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure." She takes the proffered book, handing over the one she's holding. This one's the latest  _X-Men_ , which is more her thing anyway. The stories are more exciting, and Rogue and Storm are just  _cool_.  
  
"Batman is so cool," Daniel says, nearly echoing her thought. She glances up to see his only a few pages into his book, whereas she's nearly halfway through hers. He's a faster reader (they'd borrowed Jon's prized pocketwatch once to check), but he takes his time, stopping to admire the intricacies of the artwork and make sure he's taken in every last detail of each page before moving on to the next, while she just powers through, devouring the text, appreciating the pictures but not really lingering over them.   
  
"He's okay," she says, lifting one shoulder in a shrug as she turns her attention back to her comic, eyes skimming quickly over the page.   
  
"Okay? Laurie, Batman is  _awesome_." He looks up at her, eyes shining. She smiles, even as she's rolling her eyes. It's not the first time she's heard such a speech from Dan. He's such a  _nerd_ , but he's her best friend, so she listens to his rambling again. "Come on, he builds cool gadgets and saves people and drives the  _Batmobile_. Dan pauses, then says a little wistfully, "I wanna be Batman."  
  
"You are, for Halloween," she reminds him.   
  
"No, I mean for  _real_. I wanna rescue people and hang out in the Batcave and --"  
  
Something about his babbling reminds her of yesterday and she says, mostly in an effort to cut him off before he can  _really_  get on a roll, "You know, my mom used to play superheroes."  
  
"And hang out with Robin and -- huh? Really?" Dan can't see Laurie's mom being a superhero, not even for pretend. She's so ladylike. He can't imagine her ever punching a bad guy or prowling around in dirty alleyways, looking for clues.   
  
"Mhmm," Laurie says, idly sucking on a bit of her hair. "With Hollis."

Daniel perks up at this. He's known Hollis pretty much his whole life, him being such good friends with Laurie's mom, but they had really connected when Hollis and some other policemen had come to give a talk in their class. Ever since then Dan's pretty much idolized the guy. Laurie thinks maybe it's because his own dad's not around too much, and something about Hollis just screams  _dad_. It's a little surprising that he never had kids of his own, actually. He treats them all like his kids, though, Dan especially. 

"Come on," Dan says, tossing down his comic. "Let's go play."

_Finally_. "What do you want to play?" she asks, her book joining his on the slightly haphazard stack.

He looks at her like she's lost her mind. "Superheroes, of course. I'll be Batman and you can be --"

"Uh-uh," she cuts him off. "You have to make up your own hero. I'm the Silk Spectre," she says almost proudly. It's still sort of a silly name, but it was her mom's, and she feels like if she's going to be a hero, she ought to carry it on. 

"Oh. Um, okay, I'll be...uh..." A dozen names flash through his mind, all of them already existing in his favorite comics. "I'll think of a name later. I'll just be this cool guy that invents stuff and saves people."

Laurie raises an eyebrow. "That sounds a lot like Batman."

"Nuh-uh. It's completely different. Really. And you can be my partner and uh...you're stuck in a burning bulding and I have to save you." He nods decisively, glad to at least have an idea for the game, even if he can't come up with a name that's not taken.

Laurie doesn't have any better ideas, so she scrambles up the sturdiest-looking of the nearby trees. Silk Spectre looks down and cries, "Help me, help me!"

She lets Dan save her from the burning building, then an imaginary mugger, then an evil villain who is slowly lowering her toward a vat of deadly acid (that one is her idea and she's pretty proud of it; certainly it's better than any of Dan's) before she gets tired of this game. 

"How come I have to be the one that always gets rescued?" she complains from the tree stump she has been tied to by the latest villain while he warms up his Destructo-Ray. 

"Well...um..." Dan tries to think of an answer that's not 'Because you're a girl.' He knows Laurie well enough to know  _she's_  not above punching bad guys, or even best friends who aren't careful what they say.

"I'm tired of getting saved," she says, sparing him. She shakes off her imaginary bonds and stands up. "And I can't take Daniel the superhero seriously. You need a real name. Anyway, I should probably get home."

"Oh. Uh, yeah, me too," Dan says, although it's not even starting to get dark yet. 

"See you in school tomorrow," Laurie says, smiling to show she's not really upset, and leaves him standing there, already trying to think up some new villains to top hers next time they play.

 

Dan walks slowly, feet scuffing on the sidewalk. He doesn't really want to go home, but he doesn;t have much else to do with Laurie gone. His comics are tucked away in his battered backpack, the stories there seeming to pale compared with the excitement of being a superhero himself. He turns over possible names in his head as his feet carry him automatically to Hollis' apartment.

"Danny!" Hollis says, pulling the door open. "Come on in."

"Hi, Hollis," he says, grinning. He always loves talking to the cop, who treats him sort of like a son but talks to him sort of like an equal, not dumbing anything down. Dan once commented on this and Hollis just ruffled his hair and replied, "Danny boy, you're smart enough to understand most things, and smart enough to ask when you don't." Dan thinks he'll never forget that comment, and tries his best to live up to it. 

"How's school going?" Hollis asks. It's always the first thing he says. 

"Okay. I got all my homework done yesterday," he says, preempting the next question. 

"Good boy," Hollis says, passing him a bottle of root beer and settling into a chair beside him. "So what're you doing here? I'd've thought you'd be out with your friends, enjoying the last of the weekend."

"I was with Laurie earlier, but she said she had to go home. I think she's just annoyed 'cause we were playing superheroes and I kept saving her," Dan explains. 

Hollis chuckles. "Yep. Sally used to complain about the same thing. Hard to resist a damsel in distress, though, isn't it?"

"So you and Sally really used to play heroes?" Dan asks, fascinated.

"Oh, sure. She was Silk Spectre and I was the Night Owl. All our friends played."

"Laurie's Silk Spectre now. I thought she made it up herself," Dan says, already planning on calling Laurie out on this omission when he sees her next. "She said I needed a name, too."

"Tell you what," Hollis says. "Why don't you be Night Owl? It's not really cheating, since Laurie took her mom's old name."

"Night Owl." Dan tries it out, liking the sound of it. "You wouldn't mind?"

"I'd be honored." Hollis grins at him and Dan smiles back, already concocting new adventures for Night Owl and Silk Spectre to go on together. 

"Who else?" he asks eagerly.

 

"Oh, everyone. Nelly and Rolf -- they were Captain Metropolis and Hooded Justice."

"Really?" Uncles Nelson and Rolf live together in Nelson's big house and everyone calls them 'uncle' even though they aren't really related to anyone. Sometimes they babysit, and Dan loves running around the mansion and being spoiled by Nelson while Rolf looks on, pretending to be grumpy but smiling under his beard. 

"Sure. And Byron -- he was the Mothman -- and Bill, who we used to call Dollar Bill, so it just sort of stuck as his hero name. Ursula -- well, you probably don't know her; she stopped hanging around us in high school, but she was the Silhouette." There's something weird about the way he says this last, and Dan wonders if he misses his old friend. He can't imagine not being friends with Laurie or Adrian or Jon someday. 

"Eddie, he was the Comedian. He was younger than the rest of us, of course, and I'm afraid we weren't always very good about including him." Dan's a little surprised at that. He can't really imagine Eddie allowing himself to be left out of anything. Then again, he can't entirely imagine Eddie as a kid at all. Sure, he's got a certain boundless energy that Dan can relate to, but he's so... _big_ , so gruff that it's hard to picture him running around, playing games, having friends, though Dan supposes he is friends with Hollis and Sally and the rest of them. 

Hollis tells Dan about his friends and the adventures they used to have, Dan urging him on when, a couple of times, he stops, afraid he's boring the kid with tales of times long past. Quite the opposite, Dan is soaking it up, loving the thought of his mentor at his age, playing the same game that he is already captivated by. Besides, he's getting all sorts of ideas for new villains and games and gadgets (he's pretty sure he can find stuff around the house to build at least a few of them). He's a little disappointed when the sun starts going and Hollis insists on walking him home. He is always adamant about this after dark, even though Dan's plenty big enough to be out alone; Hollis does not live in the best neighborhood. Sometimes Dan protests in vain, but tonight he doesn't mind, keeping up the superhero talk all the way back to his house. 

Nobody's home when they get there, so Dan lets himself in (he has had a key for nearly a year now, since his dad started working later and later and decided Dan was old enough to look after himself a bit) and goes up to his room. His homework really is done, so he pulls out a notebook and a pencil and starts doodling, attempting to draw out some of the devices he imagined while talking with Hollis. He looks up to see his Batman costume hanging from the closet door, where it has been for some time now, even though Halloween is months away. Looking at the costume to get the basic shape right, he draws a somewhat similar-looking suit, but instead of black, he pulls out a box of crayons and colors it in browns, golds and bronzes, like the colors of owls on the nature documentaries he likes watching. Finally the suit is done to his satisfaction and he scrawls  _Nite Owl_  in large, slightly clumsy letters at the top, deciding then and there that Batman is  _lame_.

 

Dan evades Laurie all day Monday, pausing to say hi before class starts but not meeting up with her at recess as usual. Instead, he wanders around (making sure Laurie doesn't spot him; he doesn't want her to think he's avoiding her on purpose) finally finding the person he's looking for in the far corner of the playground, back propped against a tree, thick book in his lap, bulging backpack open beside him. 

"Hi, Adrian," Dan says, settling down cross-legged, back to the chain-link fence, facing his friend. 

Adrian looks up from his book, then snaps it shut and smiles at him. "Dan." He's glad for the warm welcome, knowing that Adrian sometimes doesn't like to be bothered when he's reading. He's a bit of a loner and Dan knows a lot of the other kids think he's weird, but he doesn't care. Really doesn't care what they think, and actually  _likes_  being alone, except for maybe his closest friends, and Dan actually thinks that's sort of cool. 

As they talk, Adrian reaches one hand into the gap in his backpack's zipper, and Dan knows that inside is the stuffed cat that the blond boy likes to carry around. When they were really little, he would bring it to school with him openly every day, but apparently even Adrian isn't  _that_  impervious to teasing. He no longer carries the toy every day, and when he does, he keeps it carefully concealed in the backpack, which most kids probably assume is bulging with the books that Adrian perpetually has his nose stuck in. Big, heavy books with long titles and no pictures. Dan is impressed by this, but no longer tries to tell Adrian so, not since the time Adrian had smiled and offered to lend him one. Dan, feeling it would be somehow rude not to, had accepted, and struggled his way through the entire thing, finishing it only to realize he had no idea what he had just read. Thankfully Adrian hadn't wanted to discuss it much, beyond asking how he'd liked it. ("It was...um...good, really good!")

Today, though, Dan's backpack bulges a little strangely as well. He considers showing Adrian what's inside it, but decides to wait. 

They sit there for the entirety of recess, and then, at lunch, they track down Jon. 

Laurie is waiting when they get to the gate after school. " _There_  you are," she says, hands on her hips (Dan no longer bothers pointing out how many of her gestures resemble her mother's; first, because it annoys her and  _nobody_  wants that, second, because he thinks he would spend his time doing nothing else). "Where have you been all day?"

"Around," he says innocently. "Come on, let's go to the treehouse." And he leads the way, trying not to walk so fast as to leave the others behind, though in his excitement, he feels like running. "Wait here," he says. The three of them look at each other in puzzlement as Daniel disappears into the little shack. 

A few minutes later, Nite Owl emerges. 

" _Whoa_ ," Laurie gasps. "Your dad is going to be  _mad_."

Dan is wearing his Batman Halloween costume, but it no longer resembles the black outfit he's been staring at in anticipation for weeks. He's painted over the foam and plastic in brown, gold and yellow, making it as close to his drawing as he could. For a moment he looks at his friends, all of whom are staring at him wide-eyed, and feels incredibly foolish. One afternoon of messing around in the woods and he's taken it  _way_  too far.

He waits for laughter that doesn't come. Instead, Jon says in a slightly awed voice, " _Cool_." The others nod in agreement and Dan's face lights up in a grin. 

Wordlessly, Laurie ducks into the treehouse, blushing a little. "Don't you dare come in here," they hear her call out, and then another superhero emerges into the clearing. The boys eye the flimsy yellow dress. "It was my mother's, all right?" and they know better than to say anything against it. 

"So I'm Nite Owl, and Laurie's Silk Spectre," Dan says. "Who are you guys going to be?"

"Ozymandias," Adrian says promptly. 

Laurie makes a face. "What language is that?"

"Egyptian, I think. I read it somewhere and liked it." The other three share glances, utterly unsurprised by this information. 

"It's not really much of a superhero name," she says, and then, seeing Adrian's face fall a bit, adds, "but I guess it's okay. Jon?"

"Doctor Manhattan," he says. "I was a doctor who got blown up in a lab accident and now I have superpowers." He and Adrian have had most of the day to think of their new personas, and clearly they've put the time to good use. 

"That doesn't make any  _sense_ ," Laurie says. "If you're blown up, how come you're  _here_?" 

"'Cause I've got superpowers," Jon says simply, "and I...put myself back together."

"But none of the rest of us have powers," she argues.

"You could make some up."

Laurie thinks about this. "I don't want to have to get blown up or get bitten by anything radioactive or be a mutant. I guess I'm okay with being just a regular person. Who's really strong and good at beating up bad guys," she adds quickly. 

"Yeah, me too," Dan chimes in. He wouldn't really mind being bitten by something radioactive, if it didn't hurt  _too_  much and came with cool powers, but he knows if Laurie's the only 'normal' one she'll get mad and not want to play. 

Adrian thinks it over a bit. "Can I be really strong and really smart too?"

"You  _are_  really smart, Adrian," Laurie says, earning a rare smile from the serious boy. 

"Okay," Dan says, "so..."

"Wait," Adrian interrupts, "me and Jon don't have costumes." 

"Well...maybe we could make some." Jon digs around in his backpack, not finding much that would be useful in creating a superhero costume. Finally he comes up with some paints. Glancing down at his jeans and blue t-shirt, he says, "Maybe whatever exploded me infected me with radiation and made me turn blue." Without further explanation, he proceeds to smear blue paint over his face. Laurie giggles a bit, but it's hard to call someone else silly when you're wearing a little yellow dress with your sneakers or a painted-over Batman costume, and Adrian's still just pouting because he doesn't have a costume at all. 

"Well...you've got your cat," Dan says at last. 

"Yeah," Laurie picks up his thread quickly, "it can be like your sidekick."

"She," Adrian says, pulling the stuffed purple feline from his bag and looking at it -- her -- a little doubtfully. "I guess."

"And you can name her --"

"Bubastis." The other three look at each other, but no one's about to say anything against that cat, especially not now that Adrian's looking a bit happier.

"It...uh...goes well with Ozzy-man-dis," Laurie says, and the others nod quickly. 

"Ozymandias," Adrian corrects, but he's smiling. 

"Okay," Dan says, "we all know who we are. Now --"

As it turns out, though, Jon and Adrian have done more than come up with hero identities in school that day. They're both bursting with plots they want to try out, as are Dan and Laurie. With four people, things go much better, because there's always someone to play the evil villain, and a victim to save, and two heroes left over. They spend the rest of the afternoon trading off, and when the sun begins to descend, no one wants to go home.

By tacit agreement, they leave the game in the woods. Somehow it just doesn't seem right playing at school, though Dan can't help but eye the playground equipment. It only takes the application of a little imagination to see a miniature version of the city there, perfect for running around superheroing. Of course, it's it's also full of other kids, and already the little group is becoming rather possessive of their game. If everyone finds out, they'll either laugh, or, possibly worse, they'll want to play too, and then it won't be as special anymore. 

The game is far from forgotten during school hours, though. They meet up at nearly every lunch and recess, spending the time coming up with new characters, stories, and, in Daniel's case, gadgets drawn out on wide-ruled loose-leaf paper. Each of them has had their own close calls, nearly being caught doodling or scribbling down ideas for new missions in class. It's probably lucky that they're split up, Dan and Jon in one fourth grade class, Laurie and Adrian in the other, or they would never hear a word their teachers said, too busy passing notes about their adventures. 

"We need a name," Laurie says one day at lunch. There are murmurs of assent all around the table. 

"I thought we were the Minutemen," Dan says.

" _No_ ," Laurie insists, rolling her eyes, "that was our parents. Well, I mean, my parents and Uncle Hollis and Eddie and...  _Anyway_ , we have to come up with our  _own_  team name."

Dan doesn't bother pointing out that Laurie's using her mom's old superhero name and he's using Hollis'. He sort of likes the idea of having their own group name, anyway. Like how the X-Men have Generation X. 

Adrian is flipping through his current book, frowning as it apprently contains nothing that would make for a good team name. The other three are actually a little thankful for this -- fine for  _him_  to be Ozymandias if he wants, but they don't want to end up stuck with some weird Egyptian name just to appease him. Finally he snaps the book shut, disappointed. "What about..." his face scrunches up a bit in concentration. "What about the Crimebusters?" he suggests. The others look at him a little skeptically, and it's clear from his expression that even he's not wild about the idea. Before anyone can come up with anything better, though, the bell rings. Grumbling, they slowly pack away their things and shuffle off, Laurie and Adrian heading into a nearby room, Dan and Jon to their classroom a little further down the hall. Jon pauses to talk to a fifth-grader that Dan doesn't know, so he continues on, knowing the other boy will catch up. 

Something catches his attention, something that sounds like a sharp cry coming from a distance. Frowning, he stops and gazes around. Over on the playground, he notices two hulking kids, obviously fifth-graders, since that's the highest grade in the school, but bearing more resemblance to gorillas escaped from the local zoo, their backs to him, standing over a smaller shape on the ground. He glances around, noticing that the hallway has emptied considerably and Jon is nowhere to be seen, which means he probably doesn't have much time to get to class. Still, something about the sight nags at his mind, and he trots over to investigate. 

When the small shape resolves into a kid, he breaks into a full-on run, feeling the same rush of excitement and power he gets when he is Nite Owl, the sensation strong enough to make him ignoe the other part of him that is scared and wondering what he's  _thinking_.

"Hey!" he cries as he draws closer. "What are you doing?"

The gorillas look up, blinking in slight shock at the short and slightly pudgy kid hurtling toward them with surprising speed. Dan comes to a stop, glaring hard at them, though he's pretty sure he's about to get the pummeling of his life. At least his voice doesn't shake as he demands, "Leave him alone!"

The brutes glance at each other, then back at the kid in front of them. He doesn't look like much, and they could probably take him and the runt both on easily, but two on two is a little fairer than they usually like their odds, and there's always the chance of one slipping away and getting a teacher while they're occupied beating on the other. This new shrimp in particular has  _tattletale_  written all over him. They mull it over for a moment, then the smaller of the two shrugs. "We were just talkin'," he says. "C'mon, Larry, let's go." And they amble off, looking surly and shooting glares back over their shoulders. 

As soon as Dan has finished thanking his lucky stars that he's apparently not going to die today after all, he offers a hand to the kid, who stares at him sullenly for a moment before grasping it and hoisting himself up.

"Could've handled them myself," he mutters. 

Dan sincerely doubts that. This guy is short and scrawny, all corners and angles and awkward, gangly limbs. His hair is flaming red, and at the moment his face matches, almost but not quite managing to hide the clusters of freckles there. Dan suddenly realizes he still has hold of his hand, having been too busy staring rudely to notice. He drops it quickly. 

"Um, I'm Daniel," he says, smiling awkwardly. "What's your name?

"Walter," the boy mutters, starting to walk away. 

"Hey, um..." Dan jogs a bit to keep up. For being so short, he moves  _fast_. "You're in Mr. Long's class, right?" He's pretty sure he's seen him filing out with Laurie's class a time or two.

"Yes." Walter heads in that direction. A little disappointed and not sure why, Dan turns to go to his classroom. Then he stops.

"Hey, Walter?"

"Yes."

"You doing anything after school?"

There's a pause, as if he's considering. "No."

"You wanna come play with me and my friends?"

Walter's eyes narrow in suspicion. "Why?"

Dan shrugs. Walter sort of seems like he could use a friend, but he's afraid if he says that it'll come out sounding like he thinks the boy doesn't  _have_  any friends which, even if it's true, it s a pretty mean thing to point out. "For fun," he says, then rattles off directions to the treehouse, pausing to make sure Walter knows all the landmarks, waiting for his curt nod before continuing. "You should come, okay?"

Finally, doubtfully, Walter says, "All right," then turns and disappears into the classroom. Dan runs to his own class even though he knows he's already very late. He gets the scolding he's expecting but doesn't really care. The thought of Walter joining them makes him feel inexplicably happy, as though their group is now really complete.

Walter slides quietly into his seat at the back of the room, face burning. As if the confrontation with those two jerks and the ensuing conversation with Daniel weren't embarrassing enough, now the whole class is staring at him.

Mr. Long clears his throat and calls their attention back to the social studies lesson. Walter pulls out his book, flips it open to a page somewhere near where they're currently at, and stares down at it blankly. He's usually a fairly good student, but at the moment he can't focus on anything. Not anything having to do with school, anyway. 

He keeps thinking about Daniel. Replaying their conversation and his offer of friendship in his head, wondering what it means. His first thought is that it could just be a trick. Lure weird, wimpy Walter out to the woods, leave him sitting there alone all afternoon -- or worse -- and then laugh about it the next day? But Daniel seemed so sincere, and he did help with those bullies --  _not_  that he'd needed it. (He could have gotten away on his own, and if not, well, he could have taken it, has taken worse. Now, he knows, they'll only go harder next time.)

Probably it's pity, he decides. Everyone knows he's got no friends. Daniel probably just asked him in order to make him feel better. That's somehow worse than the thought of the other boy playing a cruel joke on him, making his stomach twist unpleasantly. 

He won't go. He won't go because he doesn't want, doesn't need pity, doesn't need friends, especially not ones who are just humoring him. But mostly he won't go because he wants to so badly.

Mind made up, his resolve lasts the rest of the day, wavering a time or two but never breaking. When the school day ends, he lets himself be swept out the gate in the flood of kids, turning the opposite direction from what Daniel had told him, heading toward his house (he tries not to use the word 'home' because it isn't, not really). 

"Walter! Hey, Walter!" He glances over his shoulder to see Daniel waiting there with three others, two of whom he vaguely knows from his class. The blond boy he thinks maybe he's seen around, but he doesn't know him. "C'mon," Daniel says, jogging over to him, "it's this way."

And all his certainty, all his resolve is gone in an instant as he joins the group.

Dan introduces Walter to Jon, Laurie and Adrian as they walk. He's already told his friends about the boy joining them, adding, softly and a bit awkwardly, "Be nice to him, okay?" They'd been confused by that at first, but now they get it and they're looking at Dan a little like he's crazy. Walter is small and...odd-looking, to put it nicely. Judging by the state of his clothes (neat, but worn and ill-fitting), he's also poor. None of that really matters to them, though. He's just so  _quiet_ , not speaking unless one of them asks him a question, and then muttering answers in as few words as possible. There's the distinct sense that he doesn't want to be there which they quickly pick up on.

He accompanies them all the way to the woods, though, and when they get there they all look at each other questioningly. They haven't told him about the game and now aren't quite sure how to bring it up. It was one thing telling Adrian and Jon, Dan thinks; they're already friends, but Walter is practically a stranger and even the most basic conversations with him are difficult. Even he is beginning to regret inviting him. Finally he nods at the others, asking Walter, "Er, d'you mind waiting here for a minute?" Walter shrugs and the four of them disappear into the treehouse. They've taken to changing all at the same time, each facing one corner with the understanding that Laurie will gladly beat them  _all_  up if they dare to so much as glance at her while she changes. She finally made this concession after getting tired of waiting for the boys, Dan especially, who take almost longer to get into their hero gear than she does. They go to their designated corners, where they each have a pile of clothing and other accoutement waiting for them.

Walter stands outside, hands in his pockets, debating if he should leave. He's a little suspicious at their sudden disappearance, but it's not as if they can take off with him standing outside the only exit, and he hardly thinks they're going to hide in the shack all afternoon just to mess with him. Mostly he just feels incredibly out of place and is tempted to take off before things can get any more awkward. 

Before he has a chance, though, the four superheroes emerge. He stares at them wide-eyed. Dan and Laurie are wearing their costumes. Jon has his face and arms painted blue (there's a long-sleeved blue shirt inside the tree house, but as summer draws near, he's taken to simply wearing a t-shirt and painting any exposed skin blue). Adrian still doesn't have much of a costume, but he's got a cape (actually an old and ugly purple curtain pinned around his neck) and he's clutching Bubastis. 

"I'm Nite Owl," Daniel says, knowing no other way to proceed than to plunge right in, "and this is Silk Spectre, Doctor Manhattan and Ozymandias."

"And Bubastis," Adrian says, making the cat nod at Walter.

"And Bubastis," Dan concedes. "We're superheroes. Do you wanna play?" 

Walter shrugs, but he's actually smiling a little. Daniel seems so sincere, so  _eager_. And it does sound like fun. "Okay," he says.

"We still need to decide on a name," Laurie says. "We're not a real team 'til we have a name."

"Yeah," Dan says, "Crimebusters is kinda..."

" _Boring_. Sorry, Adrian." He shrugs, having to admit it's true. 

"We need something cool, like the Avengers or the X-Men or..."

"Watchmen," Walter says softly, looking down at the dirt, hands still in his pockets. 

"Hey, that's good," Adrian says, "that's really good..."

"It's kinda sexist," Laurie says. "We're not all men. Well, boys."

"Yeah, but the X-Men have girls and no one minds  _that_ ," Jon points out. Laurie thinks about it. Even she has to admit it's a good name. Finally she shrugs, still not completely convinced. 

"We...can always be the Watchmen-and-women," Walter says, hesitantly, not feeling quite right about including himself in the 'we,' even if they do like his idea. When he finally glances up, though, Laurie is smiling brightly at him, and the rest of the boys look sort of torn between laughing and rolling their eyes, but they agree, and the team is official.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand that takes us through the end of part 6 from the kinkmeme. I'll be trying to update this every couple days.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Covering approximately parts 7 and 8 from the kinkmeme. Let the wild digressing begin!

By the time summer comes they're all well settled into their superhero personas. Walter doesn't have a costume, but he does have a mask, the only one of them to wear one. He'd found the white ski mask in a trash can, and though his attempt to paint a face on it had only soaked blotchily into the fabric, he'd sort of liked it. Adrian had commented that it reminded him of a Rorschach test, and so he has a name as well. He wears the mask constantly and the others have to admire his dedication, even if they don't envy him the heavy fabric in the New York summer heat. 

As it turns out, Walter, once he gets over the worst of his shyness, is a pretty creative kid. He and Laurie come up with most of their plots and villains, while Daniel dreams up, and occasionally actually builds, new and increasingly complex crime-fighting gadgets. Jon and Adrian contribute in their own ways, Doctor Manhattan's powers providing something of a deus ex machina on the rare occasions when they back themselves into a corner, Ozymandias' knowledge of just about everything coming in handy time and time again. 

Usually they play in the woods, but occasionally they go to Laurie's, where Sally smiles on and invariable allows herself to be dragged into the game, or Hollis', where the original Night Owl joins them in adventuring. Dan's not supposed to have people over when his dad's not home, and somehow, no one ever mentions going to Walter's house. They learn, too, that it's best to frequent Laurie's during the day, as one tense encounter with Larry, just home from work and not at all happy about finding a superhero team, which happens to include not only his daughter but his wife, in his living room, is enough for a lifetime. 

It's a blisteringly hot Wednesday morning when Walter wanders out to the treehouse, now Watchmen headquarters, expecting to be the first one there. He's surprised to hear banging and muttering coming from inside. Quickly he pulls his mask from his pocket, yanking it on before entering. 

The assorted collection of crates and buckets that serve as table and chairs has been pushed off to the sides of the small room. In the center is an enormous cardboard box. Walter stares at it for a moment, head cocked to one side, before calling, "Daniel?"

Dan's head pops up from inside the box. "Wa-- Rorschach," he corrects himself quickly upon seeing the mask. "Hi. I was just working on a new invention. I thought I'd be done before anyone got here." 

"What is it?" Walter asks, walking over and examining the box with interest. There are several more crates inside, and Daniel is sitting on one of them, hunched over as he affixes a panel with buttons and knobs drawn all over it to the front wall. 

"It's an airship," he explains, reaching for an old wagon wheel, still on the axle, which he fits through a small hole on the panel to make a steering wheel. 

"Cool," Walter says, staring at the ship, wide-eyed. He's always a little amazed at the stuff Daniel manages to come up with. 

"Thanks," Dan smiles. "I'll be done soon. You can watch, if you want." Walter takes a seat, watching as Daniel puts the finishing touches on his ship, cutting big, round holes in the front for windows and making a hatch that raises and lowers by way of a string and simple pulley, so that they won't have to climb over the sides to get in. Finally he clears away the rest of the debris and asks, "You want to take it for a spin?"

Walter takes a seat in the copilot's chair and they zoom around for awhile, laughing as they do loops and narrowly avoid buildings, before Daniel says, "Hey, it's Wednesday. Let's go to Eddie's." He gives the wheel an exaggerated turn and Walter hangs on to his seat as they take off in a new direction. 

Landing on the roof of the building, they disembark and run the several blocks through the city, careening around pedestrians, pretending they're still on the ship. Even Walter, usually adamant about sticking to the plot, is having too much fun to point out the discrepancy. 

They arrive at the comic shop giggling and out of breath. Eddie looks up from behind the counter when they push the door open. "Hey," he says, grinning, "It's Nite Owl and Rorschach. Hollis told me," he elaborates when they look at him in puzzlement, never having mentioned the game to him. "So, you boys here on a mission, or you just want some comics?"

Comics are the last thing on their minds, now that they have the prospect of a new playmate in front of them. "We're investigating a disappearance," Walter says, making up a story off the top of his head, and Dan knows that within minutes he will have all the details, the victim's name and description, everything. 

"Oh yeah?" Eddie says. "Well, can an old guy like me be any help?"

"We would appreciate your help, Comedian," Walter says. He's only met Eddie a handful of times, but the others have filled him in on his hero identity, as well as those of Hollis and Sally and the other Minutemen he hasn't met yet. He sounds a little uncertain, but Eddie's grin only grows wider at his words. 

"We should have left a note for the others," Dan says. He hadn't thought they were actually going to stay at the shop long. 

Eddie glances at the clock. "It's still early. I'll see if I can catch Silk Spectre on the phone." He winks at them and disappears into the back room. When he returns several minutes later, he's pressing a mask to his face. "The team is on the way," he says. Dan and Walter stare at him in amazement. He's the only one of the adults they've seen don anything like a costume, the only one, for that matter, who hasn't needed at least slight prodding before agreeing to join the game. He seems almost more eager than they are. 

Laurie, Jon and Adrian arrive in costume, so Walter pulls his mask back on as well. Dan looks a little disappointed until Adrian pulls the Nite Owl costume from his backpack. "I thought you'd want it," he says. Dan thanks him and runs off to change in Eddie's back room.

They spend most of the day at the shop looking for clues. Eddie has some tables set up for people to play Dungeons & Dragons and such, and a few people agree to be interrogated (and if the 'thugs' have a bit of trouble keeping a straight face, no one mentions it). Unlike Sally and Hollis, who mostly just go along with whatever the kids say or tell stories of their own childhood, Eddie actually wanders around the shop with them when he's not helping customers, pointing out clues and adding to the game without being prompted. By the end of the day they've all but forgotten that he's a grownup. He's so into the Comedian role, and so much  _fun_ that he just seems like one of them. 

After that, they spend nearly as much time in the comic shop as they do in the woods, on occasion even convincing Eddie to close up early on slow days and come play outside with them. 

Summer ends all too soon, but when fifth grade begins, none of them are willing to go back to playing only after school. At first they try to stick to just discussing stories and tactics over lunch, but soon enough those stories begin to bleed out onto the playground. They keep it casual, low-key, so that to outside observers they just look like a group of friends chasing each other around, burning off steam, or sitting around talking on and under the playground structures, rather than superheroes running after leads or discussing cases in seedy back alleys. 

Then one day they're investigating a kidnapping case, having tracked their informant (currently played by Jon; as their games get more complex, they find themselves switching off more and more in the middle of things, no one willing to be left out of the superheroing for long, and the vast majority of the victims now are imaginary) to the roof of a warehouse (aka the top level of the wooden climbing structure). Walter twists his arm behind his back, growling, "Where is she?" He feels Jon wince and immediately lets up on the pressure. He knows he plays a bit rougher than the rest of them, but he tries to be careful about it. 

Before Jon can answer, a sandy-blond head appears, followed by a kid scrambling up onto the platform they're standing on. Dan recognizes him from class. Stephen. They're not exactly friends, but they talk sometimes. Less so since the time Dan caught him trying to copy off his science test. 

"Hey, guys. What're you playing?"

The all glance at each other before Dan finally admits, "Superheroes."

"Cool," Stephen says. "Can I play too?"

"No," Walter says bluntly. He's still got his grip on Jon's arm, doesn't even realize he's twisting harder until Jon lets out a soft "Ow."

Stephen pouts. "Why not?"

"Uhh, we're sort of in the middle of something," Dan says. "Maybe some other time, okay?" He doesn't really want the other boy butting into their game either, but he doesn't want to hurt his feelings. 

"Yeah," says Laurie, "we're halfway through a mission. Anyway, you have to make up a hero to be."

"Oh," Stephen says, disappointed. "Well..." He's clearly about to try and make up an identity on the spot, but at Walter's glare, he just says, "Okay," and shimmies back down the wooden ladder he'd just come up.

They assume that will be the end of it. After all, none of them even really know Stephen, nor he them, so they figure he was probably just bored, wondered what they were up to, and will now forget about it.

That is, until the next morning, when he comes running up to Dan and Laurie before school, wearing a short red cape -- far more in the way of costuming than any of them bring to school. "Hey guys!" he says excitedly. "Guess what? I made up a name! I'm Captain Carnage," he announces proudly, hands on his hips. "I'm a supervillain. Can I play now?"

"Uhhh…" the two of them stare at each other, taken entirely aback. Perhaps luckily (but then again, perhaps not), it's Dan who finds his voice first. "Sure, Stephen, I…I guess so. But we've, y'know, gotta go inside now…" he says, nodding at the school building. 

As they part ways, Laurie shoots a disbelieving, and not a little annoyed look over her shoulder. "What is _with_ that weirdo?"

"Laurie, shh, he'll hear you. And he's not a weirdo, he's just…enthusiastic." It falls a little flat, even to his own ears.

"He was _wearing_ a _cape_."

"We wear costumes," Dan tries to reason. 

"Not at school! And what did you mean, telling him he could play with us!" She smacks him on the arm. 

"What was I _supposed_ to say?"

"'Buzz off, freak'?" she suggests. 

"If he's a freak, then so are we," he says quietly, actually feeling the conviction of his argument for the first time. 

Laurie clearly gets it too, letting the subject drop as they walk to their classrooms in slightly uneasy silence. But before she walks through the door, she adds, "Walter's going to freak out, you know that, right?"

He knows it. He just doesn't know what to _do_ about it. He doesn't want Stephen in their group either -- the team is solid with the five of them (well, six, counting Eddie), and to be perfectly honest, he just doesn't like the boy that much. But he doesn't want to be mean. He knows all too well what it's like to be left out. And on a more pragmatic note…even if they _did_ try to shut Stephen out, he doubts the boy would be quiet about it. And then how long would it be before the whole school knew about the game?

It's this last point that he stresses to Walter. They're split into pairs of 'lab partners' for science, and there's enough going on as the class learns about polymers by way of making bowls full of slime that no one notices them talking quietly. "Look, none of us want him there, but if we don't let him play, you know he'll tell on us."

"Shouldn't appease whiny tattletales, Daniel."

"Yeah, but do you really want everyone knowing? Look, it's just at school, it's not like we're about to invite him back to headquarters or anything."

Walter makes a sharp sound that might, technically, be termed a laugh, though not the humorous kind. "Obviously not." 

"And if you really hate him that much, I mean… Like I said, it's just at school. Maybe you could…"

"Make myself scarce?" Walter's voice comes out sounding a lot more like Rorschach's, as Dan realizes his mistake. He'd only meant that maybe they could split up for part of the time, go on separate missions and come back together after school. He should've phrased it better, should've…

Okay, he should've thought for one stupid second before he opened his big, stupid mouth, and not said it at all. "Walter, c'mon, I didn't mean it like--"

"Understood you perfectly, Daniel," Walter growls, getting up to wash out their bowl. In the chaos of the cleanup and rearranging of desks back into single rows, it's easy enough for him to drag his seat away from Dan's, ending up several rows ahead of him. Though Dan spends nearly the entire rest of the time before recess staring at his back, Walter never so much as glances back at him, and when the bell rings, he vanishes in the scant moments it takes Dan to shove his notebook inside his desk.

All in all, it's shaping up to be a pretty dismal recess even before Stephen comes running over, cape flapping in the wind as though _trying_ to attract bullies. His arrival does at least preempt Laurie's inevitable "told you so" regarding Walter, but he's still not a welcome sight.

They _had_ said he could play, though, so at Dan's pointed glance Laurie sighs and says "oh no, it's Captain Carnage," in about the most deadpan voice he's ever heard. There's far more emotion in her voice when she breaks character to add, "Seriously, Stephen, would you please lose the cape?"

"I'm not Stephen, I'm CAPTAIN CARNAGE. And it's my supervillain costume," he says, posing dramatically, fists on hips. 

"None of us wear costumes aaaaaat all," Laurie says, and they all know it was a very close call. None of them want him realizing they play outside of school as well. 

"So? You're heroes and I'm a villain. That's how you can tell us apart."

They spend half of recess arguing over the cape issue, and when they do actually get down to playing, it's clear that the cape is about all Stephen has going for him. It's unreasonable, of course, to expect him to come up to their usual standards, but he basically just spouts off a lot of "I'm the world's greatest villain! You'll never defeat me!" stuff until Dan shoots him with an incapacitating ray (actually a laser pointer affixed to a large, chunky novelty pen and painted a bronzey gold) and Laurie ties his hands together and marches him over to the police station (aka the jungle gym). 

Stephen seems happy enough, though, and as the bell rings, he says, "See you guys at lunch?" 

"Sorry," Dan says, "I've got something to do at lunch. Maybe to--maybe another time." It's true. He'll be spending lunchtime tracking down Walter, since he highly doubts he'll get another chance to talk to him in class. The others quickly piggyback on Dan's sincerity, suddenly realizing that they all have important things to do as well. 

It actually takes him most of the half-hour to do the tracking down. It's not a particularly large school, but Walter, never having had friends until the past year, has had a good amount of time to wander around it alone, getting to know the nooks and crannies, finding good hiding spots. Dan actually manages to find him only by giving up on doing so -- he's walking dejectedly back toward the cafeteria, head down, when he crosses over a large grate set into the concrete behind the third-grade classrooms. Dan's never known -- always sort of wondered, actually -- what the grate and the deepish concrete pit below it are for, but apparently they're accessible for some reason, because there's Walter, huddled in the corner below him, head down, arms around his drawn-up knees. 

He doesn't look up at Dan's steps on the grate -- he's not the first person to walk over it, and Walter knows movement would only make him more likely to be spotted -- but when Dan tugs at the corner, finding how it lifts, his head jerks up sharply, frown deepening into an all-out glower. It's a longer drop than Dan's entirely comfortable with, but he sits down on the edge of the pit and pushes off, not giving himself time to think better of it. He lands more easily than he expected, but by the time he does, Walter is already halfway out, bracing his feet against the corner and scrambling up the concrete walls with the ease of long practice.

"There's no way I can do that," Dan says, and Walter pauses, just for a moment. "If you leave, I'll be stuck down here." 

Either the appeal to his sense of honor works, or Walter just doesn't want to have his hidey-hole discovered by adults. Either way, he drops back to the floor. "Never asked you to come down here in the first place." 

"I know, but I need to talk to you," Dan says, trying to ignore the way Walter is refusing to look at him. "Look, man, I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to say that we'd rather play with Stephen or anything, because we wouldn't. I just meant… I know you don't like him, and you shouldn't have to play with him if you don't want. That's all I was trying to say."

"Could just tell _him_ to go away," Walter replies, his tone harsh, but quiet. Like he's upset, but not entirely certain he has a _right_ to be upset. Dan's stomach twists uncomfortably.

"Believe me, I'd love to. He's _so boring_ , Walter, you should've seen it. He's like the lamest supervillain ever." Walter _hmph_ s dismissively, but can't help smiling ever-so-slightly at this news. "Seriously, we were all wishing you were there instead."

"Really that bad?" Walter asks. 

"He killed our entire recess. And he didn't even know it. He wanted to play again at lunch! It's like he's so boring he doesn't even _know_ he's boring."

"Maybe fight was a good thing, then," Walter says, smile stretching a little wider as he finally meets Dan's eyes. Dan bursts out laughing, as much from relief as actual humor. 

"Yeah, you gave us an excuse to get out of it. Now will you please help me out of here before the bell rings?"

"Yes," Walter says. "Have to hurry." For a moment Dan thinks he means he'll need a running start, but Walter adds, "Need to move desk back before class starts," and Dan knows they're officially all right again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Walter's hiding spot is an ooold inside joke. There was just such a pit at my high school, and my friends and I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out what the hell it was FOR. Two of them finally checked it out one day, got caught, asked what they were doing, and while one was formulating a story about having dropped something important, the other blurted out, "We wanted to see what was down here." Fifteen years later, we have yet to let him live it down.


End file.
